Suddenly flat cars turn into gons. The picture shows a couple stages in the building. I've largely left the kit behind for now and am scratchbuilding with all new sides and ends. The notching went fairly easy. The stakes had to be shortened from the stock Grandt Line parts, which are for a higher side. While I used some care in trying to get the stakes all the same length, they are not perfect. I found the best way was to glue the stakes to the sides up against a straightedge to align the tops. I marked the frame sides, cut out notches in the floorboard ends, then pressed the side/stake assemblies in place. I only had to widen a couple of notches before the sides snapped into place. I think the slight flexibility in the canopy glue made up for imperfections in stake alignment.

Next step was to cut end boards to fit between the sides, slightly different for each end.

I did some surgery on Grandt Line corner braces to create the ones in the photo. I learned this from doing the Canfield and McGlone gondolas described in a different thread. (I do need to get back to them.)

I started on end details today, adding the deadblocks and some of the nbw castings in the endsills. I can see that I left a little gap between the side and floor of the rear gondola. Oh well.

I'm really liking canopy glue for this project. I wondered how strong it is, but have carried the partly completed cars between Michigan and home and several times to work and home, and nothing has come apart. I accidentally dropped one side/stake assembly with no problem. It's nice being able to use one glue throughout, without the odor of ACC, which can set up too quickly, even the gel.

Next: grabirons.

Mike__________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________Nobody living can ever stop me, as I go walking that freedom highway -- Woody Guthrie

All sides and ends are installed as well as corner straps and all grabs. Car diagrams and photos showed a vertical grab on each end of the sides, and two horizontal grabs on the ends. Measuring from photos showed me that grabs were some size intermediate to the usual pre-made ones on the market so I made my own.

I make a single jig for both bending grabs from wire and for drilling holes in sides and ends. I select a scrap of styrene of an appropriate spacing such that I can use the grooves to space the two holes I need the right distance apart. I scribe a line at right angles to the grooves, and where this line and grooves cross I drill my two holes, then convert one of the holes into a notch by trimming along that groove. I might trim the jig so that edges line up on the car end or sit on the ends of the floorboards.

Making a grab is simply a case of bending a right angle at the end of the wire, sticking it through the hole, aligning the wire to lie across the notch, and bending smartly. Trimmed, I have pretty good grabiron. Usually the first couple are not so good.

Maybe everybody does this but I described it anyway. Here's a picture; hard to get a good photo showing my scribe line, but you get the idea:

Those little rings near the end of each side used to drive me crazy until I read of a handy approach somewhere on these forums. (If you posted the tip, thank you, and sorry about the lack of attribution. Identify yourself if you want.) Take a block of wood, drill a hole with a bit equal to or a little smaller than the diameter of the ring, and a second hole appropriate to the wire to be used. The larger bit is slipped into its hole to make a post, the end of wire bent at a right angle is pushed into its hole, and the wire is bent around the post. Trimmed, you have the ring. Almost fun to make, I had one car done in about five leisurely minutes. (Maybe ten but seemed a lot less.) Photo:

The results:

Finally, plans and photos showed a couple of straps on each end, so I used material provided in the kit.

The sun is sort of out so I'm going to see what the rest of the world is doing.

Mike________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________Nobody living can ever stop me, as I go walking that freedom highway -- Woody Guthrie